updated 09:04 am EDT, Wed September 19, 2012

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, US Cellular all to get new Note

Samsung announced today that the Galaxy Note successor it revealed in August would be hitting US carriers in time for the holidays this year. The Galaxy Note II will be coming to the US, with pricing and retail availability to be announced by each individual carrier. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and US Cellular will all be getting the new Note by mid-November. The news confirms previous reports that had the phablet coming to AT&T, as well as leaked images that showed a Galaxy Note with Verizon branding.

Samsung says the new Note is optimized to work with 4G LTE and HSPA+ 42 networks. It has a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Inside, the Note II packs a 1.6GHz quad-core Exynos processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage, with the option of an additional 64GB with a microSD card. The Note II will run Android 4.1.1 at launch.

Coming in slightly thinner than its predecessor, the Note II manages both a larger screen and 31mAh battery, 24 percent larger than the one seen in the original note.

Samsung has also redesigned the Note's S Pen, giving it a more ergonomic feel and bringing the stylus writing experience closer to that of pen on paper. Electronista went hands-on with the new Note recently, finding that the time and effort Samsung put into the S Pen was well worth it, as the new software options and functionality make the Note II a comfortable and capable device for note-taking and creation.

Samsung's announcement doesn't provide specific availability for any carrier, though prior leaks have the Note II coming to AT&T on October 21.